Corinthia Hotels announces the appointment of international hotelier Jesper Bo Henriksen as the General Manager of Corinthia Hotel St. Petersburg. With 12 years’ experience as a General Manager, this new role will see Jesper overseeing the day-to-day business operations of the hotel, as Corinthia St. Petersburg continues to develop itself among the city’s leading five-star hotels.
Jesper will be responsible for running the daily operations at the Corinthia Hotel St. Petersburg ensuring optimal level of guest and employee satisfaction as well as profitability. He will work on implementing his belief that “Anticipation and being proactive is key to luxury, otherwise you’re just like anybody else.”
Moving from the Radisson Royal Hotel in Moscow, one of Stalin’s legendary ‘Seven Sisters’ skyscrapers, to his new address in the nineteenth-century building on Nevsky Prospect, Jesper Henriksen joins Corinthia St. Petersburg following a successful career spanning 34 years’ hotel experience in nine different cities worldwide.
Jesper is an hotelier through and through. He has worked his way up the rungs in the hospitality industry, starting as a bellboy in his native Denmark in the 1980’s, and gradually progressing through a sales career path, arriving at his latest appointment as General Manager of the five-star Corinthia Hotel St. Petersburg.
Jesper’s enthusiasm to achieve a unique combination of historical flavour, modern infrastructure and world-class service in his hotels embodies the ‘Spirit of Corinthia’. His desire to preserve the history of the buildings and tempt guests to his hotel with fascinating stories of its past, ensures he will be a perfect fit at Corinthia.
Jesper’s fundamental understanding of the hospitality industry ensures a hands-on approach. During his time as General Manager at the Radisson Royal Hotel in Moscow, the biggest hotel in Moscow, Jesper reconstructed the entire Talent Development department. “The new system’s goal is to help identify employee talents among the hotel’s 1,000-plus employees and put poorly placed staff members into new roles,” Henriksen said.
During his 30-year employment in the hospitality industry, Henriksen has gained experience worldwide, having worked in France, the United Arab Emirates and his native Denmark before becoming a general manager for the first time in 2002. Since then, he was been appointed as a general manager six times, working in cities including Brussels, Paris, Johannesburg and Moscow.
“Joining Corinthia in St. Petersburg feels like the perfect next step for me. I believe my own values blend seamlessly with the value system of Corinthia’s service promise – Craftsmanshp of Care, and my experience from my previous three years in a leading hotel in Moscow will prove to be indispensable in my new role,” said Jesper.
Welcoming his appointment, Simon Naudi, CEO of Corinthia Hotels, said “We are delighted to welcome Jesper to the Corinthia family. He joins the Corinthia St. Petersburg at a very exciting time, with the city attracting an increasing amount of leisure and corporate travel. Jesper’s appreciation for the history of the hotel, and his strong belief in the importance of anticipation and storytelling, will prove to make him a perfect fit in our growing network of luxury hotels.”
